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Showing posts from September 24, 2012

The Student of Prague (1927) - Henrik Galeen

Doesn't Werner Krauss look just like Sgt. Angel Batista from Dexter?  Also know as The Man Who Cheated Life , this is a fantastic film that I believe, falls short of Caligari and Der Golem, but still holds its own. Conrad Veidt is quickly becoming my favorite silent screen actor along with Werner Krauss and Lon Chaney. Cool thing about this movie is, it stars both Veidt and Krauss. They turn in awesome performances and do not disappoint. It's too bad Krauss turns out to be a Nazi, but at least Veidt got out when the getting was good.  The film is a Faustian tale of a young, poor, student named Balduin (Veidt) who is in love with a rich, yet gold-digging heiress. Unfortunately, being poor leaves no gold to dig. So he makes a deal with a seedy man named Scapinelli (Krauss), to sell anything in his flat in exchange for $600,000. After selling some of his things, Scapinelli draws Balduin's doppelganger out of a mirror. Together they wreak havoc.  This is a surp